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Synonyms

fall on

British  

verb

  1. Also: fall upon.  to attack or snatch (an army, booty, etc)

  2. to fail, esp in a ridiculous or humiliating manner

  3. to emerge unexpectedly well from a difficult situation

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
fall on Idioms  

  1. Also, fall upon.

  2. Attack suddenly and viciously, as in They fell on the guards and overpowered them . [c. 1400]

  3. Meet with, encounter, as in They fell on hard times . [Late 1500s]

  4. Find by chance, discover, as in We fell upon the idea last Saturday night . [Mid-1600s]

  5. Be the responsibility or duty of someone, as in It fell on Clara to support the entire family . [Mid-1800s] Also see the subsequent idioms beginning with fall on .

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

This is a fall on the previous month's figures, when around one in nine were estimated to be on a waiting list.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

But that responsibility of figuring out what’s truly safe and unsafe shouldn’t fall on the average consumer, Benesh emphasizes.

From Salon • Apr. 11, 2026

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said discussions with Washington would be “meaningless” if bombs continued to fall on Lebanon.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026

The biggest immediate impact is likely to fall on the approximately 300 residents of Samoa, a town that sits on the tiny spit of land that protects the bay.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

Everyone complains, because they block the sun, which was supposed to fall on the glass columns of the Vuvv First Landing Monument.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.